From design to practice: how can large-scale household surveys better represent the complexities of the social units under investigation?

Kriel, Antoinette, Randall, Sara, Coast, Ernestina ORCID: 0000-0002-8703-307X and de Clercq, Bernadene (2014) From design to practice: how can large-scale household surveys better represent the complexities of the social units under investigation? Etude de la Population Africaine, 28 (3). pp. 1309-1323. ISSN 0850-5780

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Abstract

The way in which ‘the household’ is defined and operationalised in surveys and census data collection has long been criticised as unable to adequately capture the complexities of the social units within which people live. In a South African national survey on household wealth (HWS) a definition of the household was used to rep-resent the ways in which South African households arrange themselves financially. Here we report on a qualitative study in which 36 households originally included in the HWS were re-interviewed to collect detailed data on household financial links and dependencies. Households with more complex structures, which represent the majority of household types in South Africa, were very poorly represented, and possible reasons for this are explored. We analyse and discuss the HWS research process in the light of the findings of this study, and propose ways to improve large-scale survey design and data collection, drawing on perspectives from multiple disciplines.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://aps.journals.ac.za/pub/index
Additional Information:	© 2014 The Authors
Divisions:	Social Policy LSE Health
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2014 11:43
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 00:43
Projects:	Survey Design and Measurement Initiative (RES-175-25-0012: PI Ernestina Coast), ESRC-ANR research pro-gramme (RES 062-33-0007: PI Sara Randall)
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council, STICERD, LSE
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/59737

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